After a rash of carjackings, the Associated Press headline announced, "Police, mall management pump up security for holiday shopping."

Retailers and mall managers responded to the recent crimes by asking the International Council of Shopping Centers to convene a conference on security issues. And in November, it did — holding a day-long series of talks attended by nearly 300 businessmen and women.

That was November 1992 — 21 years ago.

In response to the random carjackings and purse snatchers, some malls installed security cameras, others increased foot and vehicle patrols or added security officers on bicycles and even horses.

More than two decades later, the deaths of 39 in Nairobi at an upscale mall attacked by terrorists, the gunman who shot up the Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus before taking his own life, and the carjacking death of Dustin Friedland last Sunday at the Mall at Short Hills have spurred calls for increased security at shopping centers in New Jersey and around the country.

But the more things change, say some experts, the more they stay the same.

"There is inadequate security (at malls) in New Jersey," said Thomas Ciccone, the security director for Christie’s art gallery in Manhattan, a former Newark police officer and the former director of security at the Livingston Mall. "Inside malls there is ample security — the Millburn police are inside the (Short Hills) mall, but outside, on parking decks, there is no security … Cameras aren’t going to prevent crimes. Criminals are smart. They’re not going to commit a crime inside when they can outside. Unfortunately, it takes an incident like this to get people’s attention."

Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura echoed Ciccone yesterday when he said officials at the Short Hills mall "have a responsibility to make sure those folks on the outside are secure."

The mall appears to have security cameras at the entrances and exits to the parking deck, but not inside the deck, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.

In response to concerns voiced by the public and news media, Michael McAvinue, general manager for the mall, said, "We do not share details of our security plans," but indicated that local Millburn police officers are involved in mall security "on a regular basis."

The best deterrent to carjackings or auto theft in shopping centers and malls, says Ciccone, is simply boots on the ground:

"Presence is the ultimate tool in discouraging crime," he said. "(Carjacking) is a crime of opportunity."

Even a skeleton force, according to the former mall security chief, can be enough to put a dent in carjackings and car thefts.

"At the Livingston Mall we had three cars stolen in four years," he said. "Part of this was just having a presence. Do we need more security in parking lots? Absolutely."

The model in the United States for shopping center security, Ciccone said, is the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., "hands down."

The largest indoor shopping center in the country, the Mall of America, which sees as many as 200,000 visitors on a busy holiday shopping day, touts on its website a security force of more than 100 officers:

"These officers patrol the interior and exterior of the mall on foot and on bicycle, while the plain clothes special operations unit focuses on threat mitigation."

The Minnesota mall’s security operation includes a dispatch center where officers monitor cameras located on parking ramps, in surface lots and in common areas, and also employs help phones inside call boxes with direct lines to the dispatch center.

"The Mall of America is doing it right," Ciccone said. "They have a security staff that rivals police departments. The training is proprietary. It’s intensive. This is a career job people retire from."

No mall in New Jersey approaches the Mall of America model, Ciccone said. And while he added that he "gives the security officers at malls a ton of credit," he recognizes that "officers for the most part are young. It’s their first job, making minimum wage, and the turnover is very high."

Ciccone spoke from inside the Livingston Mall, where he was Christmas shopping yesterday. He said he noticed, "first thing," Essex County Sheriff’s officers patrolling the parking lot in four-by-fours.